| CCC fights Telstra with commissioned reports |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Sunday, 19 March 2006 | |
  
 The Competitive Carriers' Coalition (CCC) has released two reports that is has commissioned saying they refute Telstra claims that there is strong and sustainable competition in the Australian telecoms market, and that Australia's regulatory regime is at odds with international experience."One[report] comparing the dominance of Telstra in Australia with the level of competition in the US, noted that it would be 'hazardous and premature' to remove competition regulations from Telstra," CCC executive director, David Forman said. "The findings seriously undermine Telstra's claims that investment in new broadband networks is only possible if the Government protects it from competition." One report was prepared for the CCC by Washington-based law firm, Swidler Berlin LLP. According to the CCC, it "dismisses suggestions that the experience in the US with competition in local telephone networks has been a failure." According to its introduction, the report "outlines the US's experience with unbundling local loops and seeks to correct the fundamental errors made by some in arguing that the US experience with mandated unbundling has been a failure." Its authors claim that the report "will assist the Competitive Carriers Coalition in evaluating and responding to inaccurate claims that there is no longer a need for unbundling regulation in Australia. Ultimately, this report emphasises that the US experience shows that competition using unbundled access can result in sustainable facilities investment by competitors and incumbents alike, particularly where, as in Australia, there is no intermodal competition between non-affiliated incumbent cable and telecommunications companies." A second report by Melbourne-based financial and economic consultants, Marsden Jacob Associates, "hits back at Telstra critique of the European telecommunications experience, in particular claims that the 'ladder of investment' model does not encourage investment in next generation infrastructure," according to the CCC. The report is entitled: "Brief review of certain issues related to the Telstra Media Release to the Australian Stock Exchange". Marsden Jacob Associates says it was "requested by the CCC to critique selected parts of the Telstra media release to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). This includes: an investigation of the 'facts" provided by Telstra with particular focus on their critique of the European experience; and commentary on other Telstra arguments related to their presentation." Anyone reading the report in the hope of determining exactly which of Telstra's many "media releases to the ASX" is referenced will be disappointed: it is not specified. In fact what referred to is not a media release but a Telstra submission to the ASX of the slides and transcript of a regulatory briefing given on 1 December 2005 by Telstra GRoup managing director, public policy and communications, Phil Burgess, backed up by eminent US economist Jeffrey Eisenach, chairman of CapAnalysis. There was a press release issued following the workshop, but it contained no information of any substance amenable to analysis, Tthe reports are available from the CCC website, here. |
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